I was off work this week, but somehow found myself even more busy than usual. Being off work I had more time to watch the live streamed horrors in Gaza and Lebanon. I signed more petitions. I stepped up my boycott of companies profiting from Israel’s crimes. I sent money directly to a family in Khan Younis. Osama is 22, the oldest of 8 siblings, trying to keep his displaced family safe. His father needs medication, but with Israel’s military targeting hospitals and killing healthcare workers, leaving no functioning health service, very little is available. Almost no aid is entering Gaza. I can’t watch. I can’t not watch. I feel hollow.
I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions having worked very hard to secure funding for a work project. At the last minute the funding in the pot was slashed and we were told we had not been selected as one of only three funded projects. There was then a reprieve with news that more money had been found and we had been successful, but the money had to leave NHSE’s account by the end of the day. We pulled out all the stops to get the right finance people to accept the money and were told the project could go ahead. Days later we were informed that the transfer had been blocked. We remain in limbo. I don’t believe that the NHS as a whole is broken, but it appears NHSE might be.
I had repairs to some dental fillings I acquired in my younger days (before I accepted good advice on how to look after my teeth). I’ve been to this dentist before and recommend them if you are in London. They are kind, skilled and reasonably priced. Of course, I still woke up at 4am on the morning of the appointment, and spent the entire procedure tense from my temporalis to my flexor hallucis longus. I met a friend for a coffee afterwards, but the anaesthetic wore off much slower than I anticipated so I spent the whole time convinced I was dribbling.
P__ and I went to see Pins and Needles, a play at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn. It explores the politics around vaccines, risk, trust, and doubt. It delves into some emotional and relatable human stories of those who chose to have, or not have, their loved ones vaccinated, and the consequences they live with. Edward Jenner pops up and has some fun things to say about his own clinical trials and our modern vaccine era. There is reference to the long shadow of Andrew Wakefield’s fraud. I always find it challenging to be faced with the depths of his deception, exploitation and ego. Pins and Needles had potential but doesn’t quite work. Some of the acting was unconvincing. I won’t be rushing back to NW6 – it’s a long way to go for a 3 star play.
Wednesday was World Food Day, when we launched the Plants First Healthcare initiative. Over 20 healthcare organisations and more than 1200 healthcare professionals have signed our open letter to NHS leaders calling for plant-based meals to be the default in healthcare settings. This approach could improve the health of the nation, help us meet our climate and nature commitments, and even save money! A plant-based by default approach flips the norm without restricting choice, as meat and dairy remain on the menu for those who request them. And for this campaign we are not merely highlighting a problem, we are offering a solution, in the form of free support to NHS organisations from our partners Greener by Default.
My plant-based ally Shireen should have been giving the talk at the launch event, but was unexpectedly out of the country due to family illness. Thankfully she had already prepared slides, and since we have been working on this project together for many months, I could step in at short notice. Hers are very big shoes to fill so I hope I did a good job. I also had the opportunity to speak on BBC 5Live later in the day.
Smith Tartan (Ancient)
I met the director of the weaving studio I attend, and a couturier with expertise in hand woven fabric, to make plans for my hand made coat! I am living out a fantasy of an alternative life in which I’m a textile artist, my mind filled with colours, textures and yarns. I made a mood board, something I’ve not done since GSCE textiles. I have gone down a rabbit hole of traditional tartans, and spent an entire afternoon drawing stripes of different widths. I can now bore you with the difference between a check, a tartan and a plaid.
P__ and I went to the Victoria Miro gallery to see Yayoi Kusama’s latest exhibition, Every Day I Pray for Love. Kusama is now 95 and still creating the most inspiring, engaging art. There is a new Infinity Mirrored Room which is captivating, but it was the large textile sculpture Death of Nerves, as well as smaller paintings which contained her handwriting in both English and Japanese, which stood out. These felt like a a direct connection to her, to someone who has lived a full life and is not fading at the end, but facing the final light, paintbrush in hand.
P__ got tickets to Tattooer at Charing Cross Theatre. The play is inspired by a short story, Shisei (1910) by Junichiro Tanizaki. In the story, “a tattoo artist inscribes a giant spider on the body of a beautiful young woman. Afterwards, the woman’s beauty takes on a demonic, compelling power, in which eroticism is combined with sado-masochism.” It’s apparently classic.
The theatre bar was the most unwelcoming place I’ve been in some time, with large signs everywhere stating that tables were only for those who had purchased drinks, and the harshest lighting I’ve experienced outside an operating room. This was an inauspicious start and, sadly, a forewarning that this play would not be a joy. It was impenetrable, and not in an intelectual, this-is-over-my-head kind of way. No, it was more a this-makes-no-sense-why-are-there-two-women-with-the-same-name-why-does-the-main-character-keep-shouting-where-is-the-narrative kind of way. Gaku Azuma, a celebrated Ink-Brush Painter provided some relief in the interval, painting a ’tattoo’ on the actor’s back and a large work on the floor of the stage which really was incredible.
I went to the Homes For Us Summit, a day of talks and workshops on the need for housing reform. Homes For Us is a coalition of grassroots groups, tenants unions and charities who believe that the UK needs many more social homes and the private rental sector must shrink, become more affordable, and be better regulated. All housing should be accessible, sustainable and high quality. I was there as part of Medact, and our Homes for Health campaign. I see the physical and mental health impacts of insecure and poor quality housing all the time in my work, but at the summit I heard some truly horrific stories of the dehumanising treatment of people in need of accessible housing. I recommend watching Mould is Political, a short film on why the housing crisis is a health crisis and a political choice.
I started watching Nobody Wants This. It’s funny, sweet and feel good and is providing a much needed break for my brain.
I listened to episode 100 of the This Is Love podcast, called Valentine. I might be described as sensitive. I cry at podcasts. I sometimes even cry at adverts. But no-one with a soul can be left unmoved by this episode in which the host Phoebe spends time with her mother in the last months of her life. Listen, to hear conversations bursting with love and with life.
drlj 